Blood was dripping down the porthole by my cabin while I was on the morning radio net trying to give our position report.  My only option was to run into the cabin and get the book.  I rushed topside with it and handed it to Diane who rapidly read it to Geoff, who was wielding the knife with wild abandon in his eyes. Diane: “First you cut a ‘vee’ into its head exposing the brain”  Yep, we caught a fish and once we had it aboard all we could say was; “whoa, now what?”

So fast forward to sunset.  (caution; run-on sentence ahead!)  Ann and Diane are up on the bowsprit reading, everyone’s in shorts and tees, the spinnaker is pulling us along at 4 knots, sun’s shining, the dolphins have been dancing past the boat, there’s not a cloud in the sky, fresh sushi for lunch and now Geoff and Jansen are blackening peppers and searing fresh Yellowfin Tuna for fish taco dinner, while I’m sitting here writing email while sailing essentially in the middle of nowhere.  Yup, we’re all getting used to this.

The aforementioned former tuna blessed us with his presence just minutes after sunrise.  Geoff and Jansen were on watch and put the line out as the sun came up and were just taking a few pictures when the reel started screaming out.  All hands were alerted; “Fish on!”  After about 15 minutes of fight, Geoff brought it alongside and I gaffed it aboard.  What a gorgeous fish!  About 30 inches and 30ish pounds.  A hectic start to the day since I was just getting ready for the morning radio call and Diane and Ann were just waking up to go on watch.  This event got everyone going.  Soon coffee was made, breakfast was ready and the day was starting out to be a real Baja Day.  Finally.

(An aside: I just got handed a salt-rimmed glass with Tecate, a salted rim and fresh squeezed lime.  My main problem now is not spilling it into the computer as the boat rolls while I’m typing this blog).

Last evening’s ride was pretty lively.  10 foot seas and 20 knot gusting to 25 knot wind. There was some carnage in the fleet, but we reefed down and had a fairly uneventful, if exciting ride.  As to the fleet; one boat lost its mainsail and gooseneck, several others had some damage and put in to San Quintin for repairs and unfortunately one crew on one of the boats suffered a dislocated hip (fortunately there was an EMT on another boat who lent help and when we last heard had stabilized the individual.  They are heading to Bahia Tortuga for assistance).

The quote of the day heard over the Net this morning between the Net manager, “Profligate” and one of the boats in the fleet, “Mosuli” who ran over a 10 foot long dead shark.

Mosuli:  “Last night we T-Boned a dead shark”
Profligate:  “Oh my goodness, what kind of shark was it”
Mosuli:  “I don’t know. It was a dead one.  They all look alike when they’re dead”

I’ll leave you with that thought as we’re 20 miles from the finish of the first leg and the tacos are ready.